|
|
|
|
Acurian maintains a set of proprietary databases of patients and clinical trial investigators. The patients are profiled by geography and condition while the investigators are profiled by experience and specialty. Geared somewhat towards the investigators and the sponsors of clinical trials, patients and caregivers can nevertheless join the Acurian community to explore clinical trial enrollment opportunities and discover new treatment options. Information that a person provides to become a member is kept private and secure. Customized e-mails provide weekly updates about new clinical trials and developing medical news.
CenterWatch, sponsored by the Thomson Corporation, contains an extensive amount of information about clinical trials. It includes listings of “more than 41,000 active industry and government-sponsored clinical trials, as well as new drug therapies in research and those recently approved by the FDA”. The site is designed to be an open resource for patients interested in participating in clinical trials and for research professionals. It has resources such as trial listings, drug directories, health associations, and a bookstore. The CenterWatch World section of the website extends its coverage to international efforts.
Children's Oncology Group (COG) The Children's Oncology Group (COG) is a clinical trials cooperative group supported by the National Cancer Institute and is devoted exclusively to childhood and adolescent cancer research. It develops and coordinates cancer clinical trials conducted at over 230 institutions, which include "cancer centers of all major universities and teaching hospitals throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as sites in Europe and Australia. COG members include over 5000 cancer researchers dedicated to saving the lives of children with cancer".
Clinical Trials and Insurance Coverage - A Resource Guide This guide from the National Cancer Institute answers frequently asked questions about insurance coverage for clinical trial participation. The material here is mainly concerned with treatment clinical trials, and topics include: (1) What costs do trials involve; (2) What costs to private insurers and Medicare typically pay for; (3) What criteria do health plans use to make decisions about reimbursement; (4) Strategies to increase the likelihood of coverage; and (5) Where else to turn for assistance.
ClinicalTrials.gov is a service of the National Institutes of Health. It offers up-to-date information for locating federally and privately supported clinical trials for a wide range of diseases and conditions. ClinicalTrials.gov currently contains approximately 9,600 clinical studies. Studies listed in the database are conducted primarily in all 50 States and in over 90 countries. One can search for trials by disease, location, treatment, age group, study phase, and sponsor. One can also browse for trials alphabetically, by disease heading, or by sponsor. One can further view the latest studies added in the last 30 days.
Coalition of National Cancer Cooperative Groups The Coalition of National Cancer Cooperative Groups, Inc. is a network of cancer clinical trials specialists. Its members include cooperative groups, cancer centers, academic medical centers, community hospitals, physician practices, and patient advocate groups. Together, they represent the interests of more than 17,000 cancer investigators, hundreds of patient advocates, and thousands of patients worldwide. The Coalition was created to address issues such as improving the clinical trials experience for patients and physicians, regulatory requirements, and providing professional support services. The Coalition’s site offers a variety of programs and information for physicians, patient advocate groups, and patients designed to increase awareness of, and participation in, cancer clinical trials. Its clinical trial search tool, called TrialCheck tm, uses nine simple questions to generate a list of clinical trials that a patient may be eligible for. TrialCheck tm allows you to save your search results, and can update you via email whenever a new clinical trial has been added to your search results.
European Organization for Research and Cancer Treatment (EORTC) EORTC mission is to “conduct, develop, coordinate, and stimulate laboratory and clinical research in Europe to improve the management of cancer and related problems by increasing survival but also patients' quality of life.” The ultimate goal of EORTC is to “improve the standard of cancer treatment in Europe, through the development of new drugs and other innovative approaches, and to test more effective therapeutic strategies, using drugs which are already commercially available, or surgery and radiotherapy.” There is a history of nearly three decades of coordinated cancer treatment research between the EORTC and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), which is the leading agency for cancer research and treatment in the United States and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Medical Research Council (MRC) Cancer Division Clinical Trials Unit (MRC's CTU) MRC’s Cancer Division Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) is the largest cancer trials office in the United Kingdom (UK), and is active in all aspects of clinical trials. It’s objectives are to, “Initiate, design, conduct, analyse and publish clinical trials of national and international importance; Develop all aspects of clinical trial and meta-analysis methodology; Advance the design, conduct, analysis and reporting of clinical trials research; and Investigate cancer treatments of unproven effectiveness through the conduct of individual patient data meta-analyse.” In particular CTU’s website states, “The CTU conducts several trials jointly, or in parallel, with other large trial organisations both within and outside the UK. In addition, many CTU trials are open to participation from individual clinicians world-wide.”
You can find descriptions of some of the newest clinical trials at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center at this website. Clinical trials can be found by searching all trials or pediatric trials by disease category. Search results provide the full name of the trial, the trial’s purpose, eligibility, and the contact investigator.
The Musella Foundation for Brain Tumor Research Information provides this site on clinical trials and noteworthy treatments for brain treatments. You can browse for treatments by tumor type, treatment type, geographic area, or you can search by keyword or use the advanced search to narrow down the treatments, or search by doctor or hospital. The site also contains a brain tumor guide, and you can subscribe to the Foundation’s newsletter. All brain tumor patients are also welcomed to participate in the site’s “Brain Tumor Virtual Trial,” a new concept in collecting and analyzing outcomes data for brain tumor patients. This program collects information from brain tumor patients, over the internet, and the Foundation records and analyzes the outcomes of the treatments with the idea to enable the Foundation to identify which treatments or combinations of treatments look the most promising.
NCI's Physician Data Query (PDQ) See the PDQ entry in the Research webpage.
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) See the entry for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the Research webpage.
National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) See the entry for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network in the Protocols webpage.
SFA's Clinical Trial Resource Center The Sarcoma Foundation of America (SFA) presents this site in partnership with CenterWatch (see entry above). CenterWatch is a leading publisher of information on clinical research for patients and their advocates. The SFA's site’s primary resource is CenterWatch’s Clinical Trials Listing Service, a database of industry sponsored clinical trial listings for Sarcoma. Other resources include background information about the clinical trials process and what to expect when you volunteer to participate in a clinical trial, profiles of research centers, and a database of new medical treatments approved by the FDA since 1995.
PDRhealth’s clinical trials information site is provided by CenterWatch, a Boston-based publishing and information services company that provides information services featuring listings of drugs in clinical research, clinical trials, clinical trial results, FDA approvals and more. This clinical trials resource site provides the following. About Clinical Trials provides background information about the clinical trials process and what to expect when you volunteer to participate in a clinical trial. Industry Sponsored Clinical Trials is a listing of industry-sponsored clinical trials that are actively recruiting patients. You can use this listing to search for clinical trials by therapeutic area and geographic region. NIH Trial Listings is an index of government-funded clinical research studies being conducted by the various National Institutes of Health at the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The National Cancer Institute's Cancer Trials Database is a gateway to clinical trials on PDQ®, the U.S. National Cancer Institute's comprehensive cancer database, including a listing of approximately 1,700 active cancer trials at sites across the U.S. and aboard.
|
|
Many
Drug Companies list the clinical trials involving their drugs on the
company's website. We recommend that you search these websites as
well.
